the slope, some of which were curiously marked with a
series of deep holes, large enough to put one’s fist in,
and said to be the footprints of the sacred cow. They
appeared to me to have been caused by the roots of
trees, which spread over the rocks in these humid
regions, and wear channels in the hardest material.
I encamped at a place called Buckeem (alt. 8,650 ft.),
in a forest of Abies Brunoniana and silver fir, yew,
oak, various rhododendrons, and small bamboo. Snow
lay in patches, and the night was cold and clear. On
the following morning I continued the ascent, alternately
up steeps and along perfectly level shelves,
on which were occasionally frozen pools, surrounded
with dwarf jumper and rhododendrons. Across one I
observed the track of a yak in the snow; it presented
two ridges, probably from the long hair of this animal,
which trails on the ground, sweeping the snow from
the centre of its path.
Enormous angular boulders were frequent over the
whole of Mon Lepcha. I measured one forty feet high,
resting on a steep narrow shoulder in a position to
which it was impossible that it could have rolled;
though it is almost equally difficult to suppose that
glacial ice could have deposited it 4000 feet above the
bottom of the gorge, except we conclude the valley to
have been filled with ice to that depth.
The toilsome ascent through the soft snow and
brushwood delayed the coolies, who scarcely accomplished
five miles in the day. Some of them having
come up by dark, I prepared to camp on the mountain-
top, a broad bare flat, elevated 18,080 feet, and fringed
by a copse of rose, berberry, and alpine rhododendrons
; the Himalayan heather (AndTomedci 'f&stigitttci)
grew abundantly here, affording us good fu e l; and
thick masses of it, with moss (which latter hung in
great tufts from the bushes) laid on the snow, formed
my bed: my blankets had not arrived, but there was
no prospect of a snow-storm.
The sun was powerful when I reached the summit,
and I was so warm that for a few minutes I walked
about barefoot on the frozen snow without inconvenience,
preferring it to continuing in wet stockings ;
the temperature at the time was 29j°, with a brisk
south-east; moist wind.
The night was magnificent, brilliant starlight, with
a pale mist over the mountains : the thermometer fell
to 15g-°, and the snow sparkled with broad flakes of
hoar-frost in the full moon, which was so bright, that I
recorded my observations by its light. Owing to the
extreme cold of radiation, I passed a very uncomfortable
night. The minimum thermometer fell to 1° in
shade: the sky was clear; and every rock, leaf, twig,
blade of grass, and the snow itself, were covered with
broad rhomboidal plates of hoar-frost, nearly one-third
of an inch across; while the metal scale of the thermometer
instantaneously blistered my tongue. As the
sun rose, the light reflected from these myriads of facets
had a splendid effect.
Before sunrise the atmosphere was still, and all but
cloudless. To the south-east were visible the plains
of India, at least 140 miles distant; where, as usual,
horizontal layers of leaden purple vapour obscured